Suchergebnisse

AbstractDuring the Covid‐19 pandemic, social workers played an essential role in helping people understand what was happening and cope with new unforeseen difficulties, even carrying out new tasks and activities. Social workers were asked to redefine their work methods to maintain aid relationships with families. This reorganization was complex and challenging for child protection services. The paper will discuss the results of a qualitative research project aimed to describe the Italian child protection social workers' functions during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Three online focus groups were conducted with child protection social workers. These focus groups helped researchers explore the new organization of social workers' work in child protection services, which was aimed at maintaining their role and performing the new tasks they need to carry out to support families and children. Three main areas of discussion emerged from the qualitative analysis: (1) postponed and maintained activities; (2) remote work advantages and challenges; and (3) new professional learning.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced social workers to rethink how they perform their functions. This process was particularly challenging for child protection social workers, who had to understand how to continue to support families and children despite social distancing rules and the suspension of some activities. Three online focus groups were conducted with 18 child protection social workers to explore the Italian child protection social workers' functions during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study presents the reflections shared by these social workers on their experiences and the new awareness they acquired while performing their work in support of families during the pandemic.

This article presents the research of the project Giving Young People a Voice: Advocacy in Children's Homes, set up as a result of the interest of a nonprofit organization working with looked-after children, with an aim to improve advocacy as a listening process and to promote the participation of children that reside in children's homes. The research focused on the implementation of a visiting advocacy project and the activities carried out by an independent advocate working in children's homes. The children's evaluation of the project was collected by two focus groups; interviews were conducted with social care workers and the manager of the organization. This research deals with the implementation of the first visiting advocacy project in the context of the Italian child protection system.

Anti-oppressive social work, promotion of equality and combating the structural causes of hardship are often conceived as matters to be pursued at the meso and macro levels, while little anti-oppressive social work is considered practicable at the individual case level. In order to counteract this dangerous idea, this article presents a case study of a Nigerian mother immigrated to Italy, and is based on the five social work strategies against the social and economic crisis that were proposed for the 2014 World Social Work Day: promoting equality and equity, enabling people to live sustainably, building participation, facilitating caring communities, and respecting diversity and connecting people.

AbstractChildren's foster care is practised and studied in many parts of the world, but little attention is paid to foster parents' birth children, despite their right to participate in a process that concerns their lives and despite the role they play in foster care. Drawing on qualitative data collected from 15 foster siblings and 14 foster parents, this paper presents birth children's experiences with the beginning of foster care, their perceptions of the positive and negative aspects of living with a foster child, and their suggestions for foster parents, foster children, and professionals. The data reveal that birth children feel engaged in a caregiver role; therefore, they need guidance with regard to this role. However, social workers and other professionals do not appear to fully recognize this role. Implications for practice are discussed.